


Upon Closer Inspection

by Alys_Brauer



Series: Spones Prompt Fills [6]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: M/M, Relationship Development, prompt fills, spones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8335669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alys_Brauer/pseuds/Alys_Brauer
Summary: A prompt fill from my tumblr account mckirkishPrompt: Spock believes Bones is incapable of any emotional control or holding back anything. Spock discovers how wrong his assessment is when he discovers how much sadness and loneliness he bottles up and bears constantly. Spock finds this unacceptable, and vows to try and make Bones happy any way he can.





	1. Chapter 1

Humans are emotional.

It’s not like this fact is new or surprising, but Spock still can’t help but feel lost, and a little bewildered, when he gets caught in the middle of an emotional storm – something that is near constant with Dr. McCoy. Leonard McCoy is an exceptional doctor, he’s one of the most skilled surgeons Spock has ever had the pleasure of meeting, and he is a brilliant researcher. Despite all this, the doctor is also a man who is completely run by his emotions. Indeed, he is quite incapable of exerting any sort of control over them and always seems to be in a passionate state over one thing or another.

To Spock, it seems like a most inefficient way to live, and quite exhausting as well.

There has never been any cause for Spock to question his assessment of the doctor. In fact, he is quite confident that he has the man all figured out.

~ * ~

Humans are contrary.

They refuse to be so easily classified, and Leonard McCoy is the most contrary of the entire species. He seems to thrive on completely destroying Spock’s expectations and careful classification.

The landing party had been attacked by Klingons when they were checking on a human colony. The casualty rate is high, the med-bay is absolutely full, and it is only now that Spock gets his first hint that he may have been erroneous in his hasty judgement of the doctor.

The captain had sent Spock down to get treated for a phaser wound on his arm. Nothing that he thought warranted concern, but orders were orders.

“Spock! What are you doing here?” The doctor catches sight of him, and makes his way through the crowd to where he’s standing awkwardly by the door. “Did you get hit too?”

A frown creases the doctor’s brow, and he looks Spock over from head to toe with a clinical light in his eyes. “Just a phaser wound on your arm? You’re going to have to wait. I’m up to my eyeballs in here and it always seems like I have too much staff, except when there’s a crisis, then I don’t have enough!” he half growls, running a hand distractedly through his hair and making it stand up at odd angles.

Spock lifts an eye brow, though he doesn’t say anything about the emotional outburst. “Of course, doctor,” he acknowledges.

“Great, take a bed and I’ll-”

“Doctor McCoy! We’ve got a dpw, looks like a bat’leth.”

McCoy immediately turns away from Spock, an intense look crosses his features. “I’m on my way. You,” he directs the comment at Spock, “stay there.” It’s almost an afterthought, and Doctor McCoy doesn’t even bother to glance over his shoulder as he hurries off.

There had been that brief emotional outburst, but now the doctor is all efficiency, checking charts and monitoring his staff with a coolness that Spock can admire.

“Shit, they got her good. Prep her for surgery right away, we’ll see if we can’t get that internal bleeding to stop so our regenerators can do their work. M’Benga, you’re in charge here, funnel all patients directly to me in surgery. I have a feeling I’ll be there awhile.”

Curiosity makes Spock follow to the viewing area. His wound, while painful, is not in immediate need of attention and he would far rather witness the doctor at work now that he has the opportunity.

The first patient survives, the second does not. The doctor labours for two solid hours before he finally calls it. Spock waits for it, waits for the emotional outburst that he knows must be coming. That’s just how the doctor is, when he can’t control something, he gets passionately emotional.

Nothing happens.

McCoy strips off his bloody gloves, pulls down his mask, and calmly says the time. There’s a brief moment when his shoulders slump, but they straighten almost immediately and he retreats to the prep room, presumably to change out of his bloody clothing and get sterilized again.

It takes maybe twenty-minutes, and then he’s back in the operating room, trying to keep one more person from death.

~ * ~

Humans are hard.

Leonard has been working for over twenty straight hours. There had been a virus on Moab IV that was targeting specific genetics that had been bred into the human colonists. When the  _Enterprise_  had arrived, there’d already been two deaths, and Leonard had been determined to find a cure before there was anymore.

He had not succeeded.

Three more deaths, two of them children, yet Leonard hadn’t even batted an eye, he’d continued his research until he’d succeeded in saving the rest.

Spock knocks on the door to Leonard’s private office. There’s a growled response that Spock decides to take as permission, and he steps through the door.

Leonard is at his desk, a glass of amber liquor in his hand, but all he’s doing is staring at it. “What do you want, Spock?” he asks, his tone soft, voice tired, but there is none of the excess emotion that Spock had expected to be subject to.

“I came to inquire after you. The captain is concerned and has expressed his wishes that you get sufficient rest before starting on your reports.” Spock steps further into the room, positioning himself closer to Leonard. “I was wondering if I might take a look at your preliminary findings?” He reaches for the PADD in front of Leonard, his fingers grazing lightly over the exposed skin of Leonard’s wrist as he leans down.

He’s nearly overwhelmed.

“Oh he did, did he?” There’s a twist in Leonard’s smile that Spock doesn’t recognize. The doctor sighs, and leans back in his chair, closing his eyes.

Spock is still fighting through the mess of emotions - anger, fear, desperation, sadness, loneliness – that had been transferred in that brief touch when he had given into curiosity and purposefully lowered his barriers.

“It’s my little girl’s birthday today,” Leonard says softly. He doesn’t look at Spock, doesn’t give any indication to how he’s feeling, but Spock can practically taste his emotions on the air, can feel them still swirling in the back of his mind.

“You miss her.” It’s an observation, not a question.

“Course I do. She doesn’t have time for me anymore though. Can’t say I blame her. I’m all the way out here after all.” Leonard shakes his head, and now Spock can see it, the sheer force of emotion that Leonard is holding back.

Every day.

It’s bottled up and compartmentalized, but it’s there: a burden the doctor is bearing all by himself.

Spock can see why he loses it sometimes; venting his frustrations to the world so no one looks closer to see the loneliness he’s keeping to himself.

For some reason, this doesn’t sit well with Spock. He doesn’t like this new knowledge. It feels heavy and uncomfortable, it tugs at him to do something, to find a way to make Leonard’s burden a little lighter.

Spock resolves to do some further research.

Humans are complicated, emotional beings, but he very much wants to see this one happy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another prompt fill that went so well with the first I combined them into a mini-fic.  
> Prompt: Spock is trying to woo Bones, but said doctor is completely oblivious because there is no way anyone would want a grumpy old divorced doctor, let alone Spock who is amazing and wonderful. Basically poor Bones has some self-esteem issues, and even though he's head over heels in love with Spock, he's so sure there is no way Spock could ever want him.

Vulcans are weird.

Okay, it’s not like Leonard knows many Vulcans - well, really he only knows a half Vulcan so…

 _Half-_ Vulcans are weird.

It doesn’t take much to figure that out. First they’re all stoicism and logic doing everything so by the book you just want to smack them upside the head with one, and then they’re all wild, deeply emotional displays that leave you staring in open mouthed shock trying to figure out how you’re supposed to process what’s just happened. There’s no middle ground with them that’s for sure, and they certainly keep you on your toes.

At least Spock does.

The man is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma that is impossible to read and defies all attempts to understand him. You’d think for a person that’s so damned invested in logic that there would be a  _logical_  way to determine just what it is that makes him tick.

There isn’t; Leonard’s tried. Because, of course, if there was, that would just be too damn easy now wouldn’t it?

It’s a very good thing that Leonard likes a challenge.

~ * ~

Half-Vulcans are confusing.

Leonard has always assumed that Spock only tolerates him because he respects his medical qualifications and abilities. On a personal level, he’s always gotten the impression that Spock would be just as content if their paths never crossed - which, honestly, Leonard is completely fine with because Spock seems to have a very unique ability to rile Leonard up with very little effort.

So imagine his joy when, after a little moment of weakness on Joanna’s birthday, Spock keeps randomly showing up wherever Leonard goes.

Okay, they’re on a space ship, there’s only so many places a person, especially an officer, can go. Bu it’s still a very  _big_  space ship, and there should be no reason for Spock to randomly appear from behind every corner Leonard turns.

Now if it was Jim, Leonard would, does, understand. Now though, he’s seeing more of Spock than he does of Jim. Turn around in med-bay, and there’s Spock watching him with a bland expression that Leonard might mistake for boredom, if not for the fact that Spock’s in  _med-bay_  during his free shift. Spock sits with Leonard during meals now, and even walks with him from the officer’s mess toward med-bay when their meal hour is over – and he has no idea when their meal times started lining up, but it’s been every day for a month now.

Then there’s the touching – which if he’s being honest with himself, Leonard doesn’t mind. They’re just small, seemingly accidental, unconscious grazes of Spock’s fingers over him - the back of his hand in the hall way, the inside of his wrist in med-bay, along the back of his neck as Spock passes behind him in the mess hall. Now, they’re not unpleasant, far from it, they send a pleasurable little tingle down Leonard’s spine that he has to consciously force himself not to notice, but it is a little unnerving. Aren’t Vulcans supposed to be touch telepaths?

Either way, it all has Leonard feeling jumpier than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

“Excuse me, doctor.”

Leonard nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound of Spock’s voice. He turns away from the inventory he’s organizing to look at Spock, his eyebrow rising with a silent demand to know what the hell the man is doing in his med-bay when it’s clear that he has no injury. “Yeah? What is it, Spock? I’m a bit busy, as you might be able to tell.”

“Yes I see that, my apologies for interrupting. I came to inquire whether you would like to join me for a meal this evening.”

Leonard’s eyebrow climbs higher. “You’ve been eating every meal with Jim and I, Spock. Don’t think I can exactly stop you.”

“You misunderstand, Leonard. I was speaking of a private dinner, between the two of us. I have acquired some Kentucky bourbon, and the captain has informed me that you are quite fond of it.”

Leonard stares, his mind frantically tries to process all the information being thrown at it. Is Spock asking him on a date? Do Vulcans date? Does Spock even know what a date is? No, no probably not. That’s just ridiculous. He’s a middle-aged, divorced, human, why had he even  _thought_  the word date? Spock probably just doesn’t like bourbon and sees this as the most effective way to get rid of it without being disrespectful to the person who had given it to him.

“All right,” Leonard responds at last, his voice a little wary. “I never say no to a spot of good bourbon. I’ll be by at the end of Beta.”

Spock nods “I look forward to it, Leonard.” Is that- is that a smile tugging at the corner of Spock’s lips? It’s gone before Leonard can be sure, and Spock’s out the door and probably back to the bridge.

What in the hell?

~ * ~

Half-Vulcans are impossible.

It’s been another long day, and all Leonard is looking forward to, now that all the fires are put out, is his bed and a nice glass of bourbon. There’s only so much hell a man can live through before enough is enough.

He’s just gotten out of the shower when there’s a knock on his door. “Yeah just a minute.”

It better not be someone coming to bring him back to medical. He turned his damn comm off for a reason. If it’s a true emergency Jim can override, but anything short of the plague breaking out or a full on Klingon invasion, his very capable medical staff can deal with.

He pulls on a pair of sweats and throws a t-shirt over his head then goes to let whoever it is in.

The door slides open to reveal Spock standing there with a- “Is that a bouquet?”

He must be more tired than he thought, his imagination is getting the better of him.

“Indeed. May I come in, Leonard?”

“That- Yeah, yeah sure.” Shaking his head, Leonard steps aside to let Spock through, and the door hisses shut behind him.

They stand there for a moment, both of them awkward, just staring at each other.

“So…a bouquet?” Leonard can feel a smile growing, though he’s not sure if it’s hysteria or not, so he tries to keep it under control.

“Yes. For you. I was talking to Jim, and it seems as though the intentions in my romantic overtures to you were not being fully understood. I asked him what he thought the best way was to make my intentions plain-”

Leonard groans and pinches the bridge of his nose. He can feel a headache coming on. “Did you honestly ask Jim for advice on dating? On dating  _me?_ ”

Spock blinks, nods, and then,  _then_  comprehension dawns. “I suppose that was not wise, Jim will-”

“Jim is going to tease us for the next millennia, you can count on it.” Still, Leonard smiles, and reaches to take the flowers Spock is still holding.

Their hands brush. Spock trails his index and middle finger up the back of Leonard’s hand, sending that delicious tingling through him all over again. “It is worth it, because now I get to see you smile.”

Half-Vulcans are impossibly confusing idiots, but in this case, Leonard can’t bring himself to care. A warm bloom of happiness fills him and his smile widens as he meets Spock’s earnest gaze.

“So, Spock, what  _exactly_  are your intentions toward me?”


End file.
